Hybrid proteins have been described previously. For example, many hybrid proteins have been constructed to combine the functions of two proteins into one, such as an interleukin fused to a toxin. Kreitman et al., Biochemistry 33: 11637-44 (1994); Foss et al., Blood 84: 1765-74 (1994). In other cases, proteins have been fused to portions of other proteins that have a specific biological function. For instance, propeptides of hemostatic proteins (WO 88/03926) or stabilizing portions of albumin (WO 89/02922) have been employed in this manner.
The substitutions of various domains by domains derived from other proteins have been described for protein C (U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,932; EP 296 413), angiogenin (U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,487), fibroblast growth factor (JP-J03184998), .alpha.-interferon (EP 146 903), tissue plasminogen activator (WO 88/08451, EP 352 119) Factor V (U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,803) and Factor VIII. However, the exchange of regions between blood proteins with antagonistic functions has never been described before.
Blood proteins, which include procoagulant proteins, anticoagulant proteins and antithrombotic proteins, are among the proteins whose in vitro expression has been of great interest ever since the isolation of their corresponding genes and cDNAs. Procoagulant proteins cause coagulation to occur. In contrast, anticoagulant proteins inhibit the formation of fibrin clots, and antithrombotic proteins inhibit the formation of thrombi, which usually are larger than fibrin clots and comprise fibrin, platelets and adhesion proteins.
Blood coagulation involves a series of proteolytic events that ultimately result in the formation of an insoluble fibrin clot. The scheme of blood coagulation has been described as a cascade or "water fall," and depends on the activation properties of various serine proteases. Davie et al., Science 145: 1310-12 (1964); MacFarlane, Nature 202: 498-99 (1964). In blood, all the serine proteases involved in blood coagulation are present as inactive precursor proteins, which are activated upon proteolytic cleavage by the appropriate activator. Blood coagulation further involves non-enzymatic cofactors that control the properties of the various blood proteins. For example, Factor V and Factor VIII function as non-enzymatic cofactors for Factor Xa and Factor IXa in the intrinsic pathway of blood coagulation. See Mann et al., Blood 76: 1-16 (1990). Activated Factor VIIIa functions in the middle of the intrinsic coagulation cascade, acting as a cofactor for Factor X activation by Factor IXa in the presence of calcium ions and phospholipids. See Jackson, et al., Ann. Rev. Biochem. 49: 765 (1980).
The natural antagonist of the blood coagulation system is the anticoagulant system. In the plasma of a healthy mammalian organism, the actions of both systems are well balanced. In case of vessel injury, blood coagulation involves the deposition of a matrix of fibrin at the damaged site. After repair of the damage, the matrix of fibrin is removed by fibrinolysis.
In the anticoagulant system, a number of pathways operate to limit the extent of clot formation. Several serine protease inhibitors, such as antithrombin and heparin cofactor II, specifically interact with the activated serine proteases of the blood coagulation cascade. Additional control is provided by the protein C anticoagulant pathway, which results in the inactivation of the non-enzymatic cofactors Factor V and Factor VIII. Defects in the anticoagulant pathways are commonly associated with venous thrombosis.
Permanent and temporary disorders in blood coagulation and fibrinolysis require the administration of specific factors of the respective system. Thrombotic complications require the administration of anticoagulant proteins that are derived from the mammalian anticoagulant system, for example Protein C or Protein S.
The administration of Factor VIII, Factor IX or other blood coagulation factors is required during temporary (that is, non-genetic) blood coagulation disorders. Surgery is one type of temporary blood disorder. The various forms of hemophilia, which include genetic disorders that effect blood coagulation, also require the administration of specific coagulation factors, such as Factor VIII or Factor IX.
The functional absence of one of the procoagulant proteins involved in blood coagulation is usually associated with a bleeding tendency. The most common bleeding disorder in man is hemophilia A, an X-chromosome-linked bleeding disorder which affects about 0.01% of the male population. Hemophilia A is associated with the functional absence of Factor VIII. Hemophilia A is conventionally treated by the administration of purified Factor VIII preparations isolated from plasma of healthy donors. The treatment has several disadvantages. The supply of Factor VIII from plasma donors is limited and very expensive; the concentration of Factor VIII in blood is only about 100 ng/ml and the yields using common plasma fractionation methods are low. Additionally, although preparation methods of blood factors from human plasma have improved with regard to virus-safety, there still remains an element of risk concerning the transmission of infectious agents, including hepatitis viruses and HIV.
The isolation of a functional Factor VIII cDNA has led to the production of recombinant Factor VIII in cultured cells. Molecular cloning of Factor VIII cDNA obtained from human mRNA and the subsequent production of proteins with Factor VIII activity in mammalian, yeast and bacterial cells has been reported. See WO 85/01961; EP 160 457; EP 150 735; EP 253 455. Recombinant production has led to improvements with regard to product purity and virus safety. Factor VIII stability was not improved, however, and supply of Factor VIII from in vitro production also is limited due to low yields. Accordingly, therapy costs remain high because Factor VIII must be administered frequently.
The short in vivo half-life of wild-type Factor VIII is one reason for the frequent administration of wild-type Factor VIII in the treatment of hemophilia A. As a consequence, recipients sometimes develop antibodies against the exogenous Factor VIII that is administered, which can greatly reduce its effectiveness leading to the necessity to further increase the dose given.
For example, between 11% and 13% of the hemophilia A patients treated with Factor VIII products develop antibodies against Factor VIII. See Aledort, Sem. Hematol. 30: 7-9 (1993). In an attempt to induce immunotolerance, hemophilia A patients with antibodies against Factor VIII are treated with high doses of Factor VIII. Brackman et al., Lancet 2: 933 (1977). But high dosage administration is very expensive.
The problems-associated with factor VIII administration in the prior art may be circumvented, however, if the concentration of protein administered to obtain a Factor VIII activity in the blood of hemophiliacs can be kept sufficiently low to escape immunodetection and production of anti-Factor VIII antibodies while still obtaining the needed positive effects of Factor VIII. Accordingly, there is need for Factor VIII derivatives with improved functional properties, so that more units of Factor VIII activity can be delivered per molecule administered, thus allowing reduction in dosage and frequency of administration.
Factor VIII has three acidic regions which contain sulfated tyrosines adjacent to cleavage sites for thrombin at the regions from Met.sup.337 to Arg.sup.372 and from Ser.sup.710 to Arg.sup.740 in the heavy chain and from Glu.sup.1649 to Arg.sup.1689 in the light chain. See Mikkelsen et al., Biochemistry 30: 1533-37 (1991); Pittman et al., loc. cit. 31: 3315-25 (1992); Eaton et al., Biochemistry 25: 8343-47 (1986). In all three cases, the acidic regions contain one or more tyrosine residues which have been shown to be sulfated. Sulfation of Tyr.sup.1680 is essential for the interaction of Factor VIII with von Willebrand Factor. See Leyte et al., J. Biol. Chem. 266: 740-46 (1991). While the role of the sulfated Tyr.sup.346 is not known, Fay et al. Thromb. Haemost. 70: 63-67 (1993), such that it is likely to be involved in the interaction between the A1 and A2 domains in activated Factor VIII. Sulfation of Tyr.sup.718, Tyr.sup.719 and Tyr.sup.723 was shown to increase the intrinsic activity of activated Factor VIIIa. Michnick et al., J. Biol. Chem. 269: 20095-102 (1994). Functional analysis of Factor VIII-del(713-1637), a deletion mutant of Factor VIII lacking most of the B-domain and the acidic region that contains Tyr.sup.718, Tyr.sup.719 and Tyr.sup.723, showed that it was defective in procoagulant activity. Biochemical analysis revealed that full activation of Factor VIII-del(713-1637) required elevated amounts of thrombin compared to the wild-type molecule. Mertens et al., Brit. J. Haematol. 85: 133-42 (1993).
Thrombin is the enzyme responsible for the activation of Factor VIII. Thrombin, moreover, plays many other roles in the coagulation cascade. Proteolytic cleavage of fibrinogen by thrombin produces the fibrin monomer, which then polymerizes to form the insoluble fibrin clot. Furthermore, thrombin can initiate a number of positive and negative feedback loops that either sustain or downregulate clot formation. Stubbs et al., Thromb. Res. 69: 1-58 (1993); Davie et al., Biochem. 30: 10363-70 (1991). Binding of thrombin to its platelet receptor is associated with stimulation and aggregation of platelets (Coughlin et al., J. Clin. Invest. 89:351-55 (1992). Limited proteolysis by thrombin activates the non-enzymatic cofactors V and VIII, which enhances Factor X and prothrombin activation. Kane et al. Blood 71: 539-55 (1988). Additionally, there is evidence that thrombin is involved in the activation of Factor XI. Gailani et al., Science 253: 909-12 (1991). When bound to the endothelial cell receptor thrombomodulin, thrombin works as an anticoagulant by activating protein C. Esmon, Thromb. Haemost. 70: 29-35 (1993). In the presence of glycosaminoglycans, thrombin is specifically inhibited by the serine protease inhibitors, anti-thrombin and heparin cofactor II. Huber et al., Biochem. 28: 8952-66 (1989).
Determination of the three-dimensional structure of the complexes that thrombin forms with the synthetic inhibitor PPACK, as well as with hirudin, an anticoagulant protein originally isolated from leeches, have defined an important role for a positively charged area, known as the "anion exosite," in the interaction of thrombin with other proteins. Bode et al., EMBO J. 11: 3467-75 (1989); Skrzypczak-Jankun et al., J. Mol. Biol. 206: 755-57 (1989); Rydel et al., Science 249: 277-80 91990); Grutter et al., EMBO J. 9: 2361-65 (1990). The best described three-dimensional structure is that of the thrombin-hirudin complex, where the acidic region in the carboxy-terminal region of hirudin is in close contact with the anion exosite of thrombin. Grutter et al., EMBO J 9: 2361-65 (1990); Rydel et al., Science 249: 277-80 (1990). Stretches of negatively charged amino acids of the thrombin receptor, thrombomodulin and heparin cofactor II, which are similar to those in hirudin, have been shown to interact with the anion exosite of thrombin. Liu et al., J. Biol. Chem. 266: 16977-80 (1991); Vu et al., Nature 353: 674-77 (1991); Mathews et al., Biochemistry 33: 3266-79 (1994); Tsiang et al., Biochemistry 29: 10602-12 (1990); Van Deerlin et al., J. Biol. Chem. 266: 20223-31 (1990). Studies which employ synthetic peptides corresponding to the negatively charged areas of these proteins have shown that they have different affinities for thrombin. These studies indicate that the degree of affinity of thrombin for other proteins depends in part on the acidic regions of those other proteins. Tsiang et al., Biochem. 29: 10602-12 (1990); Hortin et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 169: 437-442 (1990).
In the activated state, Factor VIII is a heterotrimer comprising the amino acid residues 1-372 (containing the A1 domain) and 373-740 (containing the A2 domain) of the heavy chain and residues 1690-2332 (the domains A3-C1-C2) of the light chain. See Eaton et al., Biochem. 25: 505-12 (1986), and Lollar et al. Biochemistry 28: 666-74 (1989). In comparison with the inactive Factor VIII precursor, the active Factor VIII thus lacks the light chain fragment 1649-1689, which is involved in the interaction of Factor VIII with von Willebrand factor, Lollar et al., J. Biol. Chem. 263: 10451-55 (1988), as well as the complete B-domain region 741-1648.
The finding that the complete B-domain is proteolytically removed when Factor VIII is activated has led to the construction of various B-domain deletion mutants. Such Factor VIII B-domain deletion mutants were found to result in increased production levels of recombinant Factor VIII. See EP 294 910; WO 86/06101; U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,112; Toole et al., Proc. Nat'l Acad. Sci. USA 83: 5939-42 (1986); Eaton et al. Biochemistry 25: 8343-47 (1986); Sarver et al., DNA 6:553-64 (1987). The deletion mutant Factor VIIIdel(868-1562), which is denoted "Factor VIII dB695" here, has been shown to be similar to plasma Factor VIII with regard to binding to von Willebrand Factor, half-life and recovery of Factor VIII dB695 upon infusion into dogs with hemophilia A. Mertens et al., Brit. J. Haematol. 85:133-142 (1993).
Other hybrid molecules with Factor VIII activity have been described. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,803, for example, a Factor VIII molecule is described that retains Factor VIII activity when a Factor V B-domain is substituted for the natural B-domain. International application WO 94/11013 discloses chimeric Factor VIII in which one or more exons are substituted by the corresponding exons of Factor V and chimeric Factor V in which one or more exons are substituted by the corresponding exons of Factor VIII.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,771 describes human/porcine Factor VIII hybrids. These hybrids are obtained by mixing porcine Factor VIII heavy chain with human Factor VIII light chain and vice versa, or via recombinant DNA technology. A recombinant molecule with Factor VIII activity is described where the A2-domain of porcine Factor VIII has been substituted for the A2-domain of human Factor VIII. WO 94/11503 describes various constructs wherein domains of porcine Factor VIII are substituted for corresponding regions in human Factor VIII. Some of these porcine/human factor VIII hybrids exhibit increased Factor VIII activity when compared to wild-type Factor VIII, as determined by the Kabi Coatest Chromogenic Assay. The maximum increase of 3.8-fold, however, is only achieved when the large domain between amino acid positions 336 and 740 in human Factor VIII is replaced by its porcine counterpart. This domain represents the structurally but not biochemically defined unit, which is the A2-domain plus some additional amino acid residues on either side.
International applications WO 95/18827 and WO 95/18829 disclose Factor VIII derivatives wherein single amino acids in the A2 domain have been deleted or substituted to give a more stable protein with Factor VIII activity. In the latter application, only single amino acids are deleted or substituted. The procoagulant activity of all of these Factor VIII derivatives is not different from that of wild-type Factor VIII, however.
International application WO 95/18828 describes Factor VIII derivatives wherein single amino acids in the A2 domain have been deleted or substituted to give a protein with the same activity as wild-type Factor VIII, but which is reportedly capable of being prepared in greater yield by recombinant DNA techniques.
With regard to other proteins, international application WO 91/05048 discloses mutants of human plasminogen activator inhibitor whose reactive centers are replaced by the reactive center of antithrombin III. As a result, the mutants can exhibit different properties, such as reactivity with serine proteases. But this publication does not involve blood coagulation proteins, nor does it discuss the insertion of acidic regions. European application 296 413 describes a hybrid protein C whose Gla domain is replaced by another Gla domain derived from another vitamin K-dependent protein.